For Immediate Release

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Physicians in York Region Call for Fair Hospital Funding

Hospital Growth Funding Campaign Spreading Across the GTA/905

 Richmond Hill: York Region physicians today joined other GTA/905 regions by launching a poster and mail-in campaign to raise awareness about the provincial hospital funding policies that disadvantage residents in Ontario’s high growth regions such as York Region.

 “York Region is the fastest growing region in Ontario yet we continue to get less and less funding to run local hospitals and other health care services compared to other Ontarians,” said Dr. Stephen Sinclair, a local specialist physician and President of the Medical Staff at York Central Hospital. “The lack of provincial growth funding for hospitals is resulting in a growing gap in per capita funding in York Region and makes it difficult for me and my colleagues to provide the timely access to care for the increasing number of patients in our rapidly growing communities.”

 “Multi-year hospital funding announced by the Provincial Government earlier this month makes it clear that over the next several years the gap in per capita hospital funding for York Region gets worse,” Dr. Sinclair added. “The lack of growth funding for hospitals in Ontario’s high growth regions such as York Region means that residents in communities like Richmond Hill, Markham and Newmarket are less able to get care locally or have to wait longer to get their care.”

GTA/905 residents in Durham, Halton, Peel and York have seen their regional per capita funding for local hospital care fall from $229 below the provincial average in 2003 to $255 below the provincial average today. As a result, the annual funding gap for hospital services in the GTA/905 has increased from $590 million to $740 million. For York Region residents alone, the per capita funding gap for hospital care has increased from $356 below the provincial average in 2002/03 to $389 below in 2006/07 resulting in an annual funding gap that has grown to over $352 million.

 “Growth funding for Ontario’s hospitals and the Province distributing health care resources across Ontario on the basis of population would mean that patients and families across York Region would benefit from better local access to hospital care,” said Dr. Christyne Peters, an obstetrician-gynecologist and Past-President of the Medical Staff Association of Markham Stouffville Hospital. “For the sake of our patients, we will be working with other providers here and across the GTA/905 to bring our call for growth and population-based funding directly to our MPPs at Queen’s Park.”

 The poster and “GTA/905 MPP mail-in” campaign is now underway across York Region as well as the three other GTA/905 regions of Durham, Halton and Peel.  Physicians across York Region are coming together with other GTA/905 physicians and placing posters in their offices and encouraging their patients to mail in a tear out section from a brochure to bring the issue of local hospital under funding to their MPPs’ attention. 

 The GTA/905 regions of Durham, Halton, Peel and York, are growing twice as fast as the province as a whole and represent half the annual population growth in Ontario. The campaign’s goal is to raise awareness about the need for growth funding for hospitals in the GTA/905 to improve local access to hospital care for the three million residents living in the GTA/905. Posters and brochures are free and are available from the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance.

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Backgrounder

Posters/Brochures